Causing mischief is what these guys are all about…
1 Kim Dotcom
Born Kim Schmitz, this Finnish and German internet entrepreneur has made millions from founding online services like Megaupload and, later, Mega. Of course, both of these are closely linked with copyright infringement, and this, along with accusations of money laundering, wire fraud and racketeering, is why the US Department of Justice is trying to have him extradited from New Zealand, where he currently lives.
But his rap sheet doesn’t end there. He was already given a twoyear suspended sentence in Germany for a variety of computerrelated crimes. Later, he was given another suspended sentence for embezzlement, and he was also fined for failing to disclose shareholdings.
In short, he’s a very naughty boy.
2 Dread Pirate Roberts
Taking his online handle, Dread Pirate Roberts, from the book The Princess Bride (or more likely the 1987 film adaptation), Ross William Ulbricht must have thought he was unstoppable when he was heading up the Silk Road black market website. Running on the darknet, Ulbricht’s anonymity must have seemed assured, but just two years after the sites’s 2011 launch, Silk Road had been shut down, and Ulbricht found himself being arrested and charged with money laundering, computer hacking and conspiracy to traffic narcotics. By 2015, he had been convicted of those crimes and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Unfortunately for him, his troubles haven’t ended yet. He’s still facing a separate trial in Maryland, USA, for hiring a contract killer to do away with six people (a witness, a blackmailer and associates of the blackmailer). Tut, tut.
3 Gary McKinnon
Accused of carrying out the biggest hack of all time of military computers, Gary McKinnon worked his way into the systems of none other than Nasa (among others). The matter of his guilt is without doubt, because he himself has admitted to the hack. The problem, as you’ll no doubt remember, is whether he should be extradited to the United States to face justice.
On the face of it, yes, he should, even if he really was just looking for evidence of UFOs and free-energy suppression, as he claims. But because he was diagnosed as autistic, he was declared a suicide risk, so it was claimed extradition would contravene his human rights.
Ultimately, the extradition was granted but eventually blocked by Home Secretary Theresa May. That, at the moment, is how things stand.
4 Gottfrid Svartholm
Along with Fredrik Neij and Peter Sunde, Svartholm co-founded The Pirate Bay. He was, of course, convicted of copyright infringement, for which he received a oneyear prison sentence. But his illegal activities extend beyond this, and he’s served a few sentences for other crimes too.
In 2013, he was given two years (reduced to one on appeal) for hacking into Logica, a company that was working for tax authorities. After that, he was sent to Denmark to face trial for hacking into computers owned by technology firm CSC. There he was handed a sentence for three and a half years.
He has, however, been free since September 2015, so he’s clearly been behaving himself in prison.
5 Sabu
In 2011, LulzSec was a big deal. This hacker group had carried out a huge attack on Sony and apparently taken down the CIA website, among other high-profile attacks. At the heart of this collective was a hacker going by the name of Sabu.
The real identity of this person was revealed in 2012 as Hector Xavier Monsegur, but authorities were aware of his identity long before then. In fact, he had been arrested in June 2011 and had been working with the FBI ever since, continuing his LulzSec activities and helping to build a case against his fellow hackers.
We can’t really blame him for that, but we don’t imagine many of his old chums will be sending him Christmas cards any time soon.